Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

NOTEBOOK “ο”

(“OMICRON”)

MARX ON FRANCE’S WAR FOR FREEDOM(JANUARY 1871), ON IRELAND,AND ON THE COMING WAR (1874)

Marxon the war of 1870:

In the First Address of the International (July 23, 1870), Marx quotes a resolution adopted in Chemnitz by delegates representing 50,000 workers, who declared the war to be “exclusively dynastic” (p. 18, 3rd edition ofThe Civil War).

[Ibidem, pp.17-18:for the Germans, it is a war of

defence.]

The Second Address (September 9, 1870) states: “The war of defence ended ... in the proclamation of the Republic”....

Letter of December 13, 1870: “However the war may end, it has given the French proletariat practice in arms” [Notebook: “Marxism on the State”, p. 2, margin[2]].

An article inThe Daily News, January 16, 1871: “France is fighting not only for her own national independence, but also for the liberty of Germany and Europe.”[3]

Letter of April 12, 1871: enthusiasm over the “historic initiative” of the Parisian workers, etc. (Notebook: “Marxism on the State”, p. 12).[4]The Civil War in France: May 30, 1871.

Same source; in a letter of March 28, 1870, Marx quotes his complaints against Bakunin and the text of the General Council’s resolution of January 1, 1870, which sets out, inter alia, the General Council’s attitude to theIrishquestion:

...“All diplomatic moves notwithstanding, a new war— sooner or later—is inevitable, and until it is over it is hardly likely that the position will anywhere develop into a powerful popular movement, or, at most, it will be of a local and minor character.”

[1]See Marx and Engels,Selected Works, Moscow, 1962, Vol. I, p. 497.

[2]See Marx’s letter to Kugelmann, December 13, 1870.

The Notebook “Marxism on the State”, which consists of preparatory materials for Lenin’sThe State and Revolution, was written in January-February 1917 in Zurich. The reference to the Notebook “Marxism on the State” was, apparently, made later, during Lenin’s work onThe State and Revolution.

[3]See Marx’s letter to the editor ofThe Daily Newsof January 16, 1871. (Marx, Engels,Selected Correspondence, Moscow, 1915, p. 256).

[4]See Marx and Engels,Selected Works, Moscow, 1962, Vol. II, p. 463.

[5]The date given for Marx’s letter inDie Neue Zeitis wrong; it should be February 4, 1871.

[6]SeeThe General Council of the First International, 1868-1870. Minutes, Moscow, p. 405.

[7]See Marx’s letter to Kugelmann, May 18, 1874.